Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy.
Institute of General Pathology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and Gemelli Polyclinic, 00168 Rome, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Mar 23;19(4):958. doi: 10.3390/ijms19040958.
In the last few years, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been a hot topic in cancer research. Many ncRNAs were found to regulate the apoptotic process and to play a role in tumor cell resistance to treatment. The apoptotic program is on the frontline as self-defense from cancer onset, and evasion of apoptosis has been classified as one of the hallmarks of cancer responsible for therapy failure. The B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) family members are key players in the regulation of apoptosis and mediate the activation of the mitochondrial death machinery in response to radiation, chemotherapeutic agents and many targeted therapeutics. The balance between the pro-survival and the pro-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins is strictly controlled by ncRNAs. Here, we highlight the most common mechanisms exerted by microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs on the main mediators of the intrinsic apoptotic cascade with particular focus on their significance in cancer biology.
在过去的几年中，非编码 RNA（ncRNA）一直是癌症研究的热门话题。许多 ncRNA 被发现可以调节细胞凋亡过程，并在肿瘤细胞对治疗的抵抗中发挥作用。细胞凋亡程序是癌症发生的第一道防线，而逃避细胞凋亡已被归类为癌症的标志之一，是导致治疗失败的原因之一。B 细胞淋巴瘤 2（BCL-2）家族成员是细胞凋亡调控的关键参与者，介导了线粒体死亡机制的激活，以响应辐射、化疗药物和许多靶向治疗药物。抗凋亡和促凋亡 BCL-2 蛋白之间的平衡受到 ncRNA 的严格控制。在这里，我们重点介绍 microRNAs、长链非编码 RNA 和环状 RNA 对内在凋亡级联反应的主要介质施加的最常见机制，特别关注它们在癌症生物学中的意义。
